 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
President Vladimir Putin took off from Moscow for a supersonic flight in a cruise-missile carrying Tupolev-160 bomber jet Tuesday, the latest in the Russian leader's action-packed public appearances. State television showed Putin rolling up his shirt sleeves for a medical check, before donning a flight suit and helmet and taking the commander's position in the giant strategic bomber, known in NATO code as "Blackjack." With Major General Anatoly Zhikharev at the controls and a colonel and a lieutenant colonel in charge of navigation, the Tu-160 flew east from Moscow's Chkalovsky military airport toward the region of Nizhny Novgorod, Interfax news agency reported. The Tu-160 was due to break the sound barrier before slowing to make a test firing of cruise missiles over a range, refuelling in mid-air and turning back. Before landing, Putin was to experience a final thrill of flying at the aircraft's lowest allowed height of 200 metres (656 feet) at a blistering 900 kilometres (560 miles) an hour, Interfax said. A second Tu-160, piloted by a lieutenant general, was accompanying the president's plane. Putin, who was earlier attending the MAKS 2005 aerospace fair at Moscow's Zhukovsky aerodrome, has made strengthening the country's troubled armed forces a keystone of his two terms in office. He is well known for his morale-boosting appearances in military roles. In 2000, while still acting president, Putin landed a Su-27 fighter in Chechnya, where Russian forces were mounting a fierce bombing and shelling campaign against the rebel-held capital city Grozny. In 2000 and 2004, Putin also took trips on navy submarines. The Tu-160 is the last strategic bomber of Soviet design and the heaviest, most powerful bomber ever built. It can fly at 2,220 kilometres (1,380 miles) an hour, or Mach 2.025, and fly 12,300 kilometres (7,643 miles) without refuelling. All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express 
Space Adventures Offers Private Voyage To The Moon
New York (SPX) Aug 11, 2005Space Adventures announced Wednesday the availability of a commercial spaceflight to the far side of the moon. |
. |
|
